Thursday, January 23, 2014

Carol Lee Shanks designs and constructs unique handcrafted clothing from fine natural textiles. The textile art pieces you see here are made from the scraps of cloth left over from Carol's 2011 Fall Fashion Collection. "She has a great reverence for cloth allowing it to be the foundation of her inspiration. An integral part of her work is manipulating the cloth to create different surface textures." - World Shobori Network

I enjoyed reading about David Quinn's process...."The starting point can be anything, a colour, a found piece of paper, another painting etc. I work on a lot of pieces at the same time. I like being able to see as many of them as i can while I'm working. They feed into and off each other, some sit for ages before coming to fruition, others can come together quickly, the trick is knowing when to step back. I like to layer things up. I probably approach each piece more like a page in a notebook, that's why having lots is important, it means I don't get too precious and am not overly concerned about messing something up. I try to make the most of every mark and layer, look at it from a few different angles and think about how, if at all I could make something of it. This can mean sitting for ages just looking at the work. I want each piece to contain an element of the unexpected and for that to happen means not having too many plans beforehand. Working on a small scale and on lots of pieces at the same time means you can be a lot more spontaneous which I think is crucial if the work is to have life." - David Quinn. (Read the rest of the interview hereand see David's website here)

" I search for devices that will enable me to create multilayered works. This has led to my involvement with the beginnings of language, early man made marks and the Ogham and Bardic Alphabets." - Mary Lloyd JonesBetween the Layers post here

Sunday, January 12, 2014

"Where's your church?""We're standing in it.""But this is a bookstore and it's Friday.""Yes, but you might also choose to see it as a cathedral of the human spirit -- a storehouse consecrated to the full spectrum of human experience. Just about every idea we've ever had is in here somewhere. A place containing great thinking is a sacred space."- Forrest Church

I'm re-posting a well known quote by Joseph Campbell as a reminder......"You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody, you don't know what anybody owe's to you. This is a place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen."

Kevin Titzer's studio. Click to see more studio spaces here."Our life has become so economic and practical in its orientation that, as you get older, the claims of the moment upon you are so great, you hardly know where the hell you are, or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you. Where is your bliss station? You have to try to find it. Get a phonograph and put on the music that you really love, even if it's corny music that nobody else respects." - Joseph Campbell

Elizabeth Gilbert created what she calls her "Sky-brary" in the attic of her home. This is where she wrote her latest novel The Signature of All Things . It's so important to find your own sacred space ..... or think tank ... sky-brary.... or bliss station.

"Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again." - Joseph Campbell

"Many of the tribal peoples of the world recognize that there are four places in nature where you can find deep peace and remember who you really are. One is in the deep woods; one is in the desert; one in the mountains and one near the ocean." - Angeles Arrien, The second half of life.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

"Every man should be born again on the first day of January.Start a fresh page.Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary,or let down one,according to circumstances;but on the first of January let every mangird himself once more,with his face to the front,and take no interest in the thingsthat were and are past."- Henry Ward BeecherWishing you all everything of the best for 2014